Quebecers chose 'unity and openness,' Couillard says

MONTREAL — The Quebec Liberal Party staged a stunning comeback 18 months after being ousted from power in the climax to the Maple Spring, winning a majority government in the most divisive and nasty election campaign in recent memory.

The Liberals took 70 of Quebec’s 125 electoral seats and garnered 41 per cent of the popular vote – a stinging blow to the Parti Québécois and its controversial charter of values.

Taking to the stage in Saint-Félicien, after snagging his Roberval riding from a PQ incumbent with 55 per cent of the vote, premier-elect Philippe Couillard said the Liberals will focus on the economy and job creation.

But he also attempted to heal the wounds identity politics tore in Quebec’s social fabric.

“(Quebecers) have chosen unity and openness,” Couillard said. “The division is over. Reconciliation has begun. We will now work together for Quebec.”

Outgoing premier Pauline Marois announced she would step down as leader after support for her Parti Québécois sank to its lowest level since 1970 with just 25 per cent of the popular vote.

Marois, Quebec’s first woman premier, lost her riding of Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupréas by 777 votes.

Taking the stage at 11:15 p.m., a poised Marois said she was saddened by her party’s defeat but proud of what the PQ accomplished in 18 short months.

However her parting shot focussed on the insecurity on which she based her failed campaign.

“I am worried for the future of our language,” she said. “For 400 years we’ve been speaking our beautiful language in North America... Never forget all the battles we have had to wage. We must continue, we must promote our language all the time.”

PQ cabinet ministers and star candidates heaped praise on Marois for her leadership at a party rally in Montreal.

“We have reason to be disappointed, but we never give up. Ever,” said Bernard Drainville, the minister who championed the charter, who won his Marie-Victorin riding.

“It’s not the end of the story and it’s not the end of the contributions of Pauline Marois,” said Jean-François Lisée, the foreign affairs minister, who won in Rosemont.

Media baron Pierre Karl Péladeau, whose recruitment as a star candidate for the PQ was a defining moment of the 2014 campaign, also took centre stage – perhaps a prelude for the leadership campaign to come.

“Tonight we have mixed feelings,” the former president and CEO of Quebecor Inc. said earlier in the evening after clinching Saint-Jérôme riding. “The results across Quebec were not what we had hoped... we must accept the choice of Quebecers with humility.”

He went on to praise Marois’s leadership and express his “pride” in having made the leap into politics with her.

The PQ won 30 ridings, down from the 54 it won when it formed a minority government in September 2012. Both the Coalition avenir Québec and Québec solidaire posted historic showings, winning 22 and three seats respectively.

The CAQ started slowly, but made steady gains through the evening. Veterans like Éric Caire held La Peltrie, Nathalie Roy won Montarville and Marc Picard hung on to Chutes-de-la-Chaudière. CAQ newcomers like Claire Samson in Iberville and Jean-François Roberge in Chambly helped up the seat count from 19 in 2012.

Legault, celebrating the CAQ’s showing, promised to provide an opposition that is “strong, vigilant and constructive.”

Legault, who took L’Assomption with 47 per cent of the vote, waged a fight for political survival. Early polls suggested the fickle voters who supported the nascent CAQ initially were likely to abandon his party. But a vigorous campaign and a strong performance in two leaders’ debates saved him as nationalist Quebecers unimpressed with both the Liberals and the PQ looked for a safe harbour for their votes.

Françoise David, the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, held her Gouin riding with 49 per cent. Amir Khadir kept Mercier and Manon Massé made a breakthrough in Saint-Marie-Saint-Jacques, leading by 69 votes.

QS asked Quebecers to “vote with their heads” on her campaign signs. But David won the hearts of many nationalists and progressive voters when Péladeau’s stepped up.

At a party rally David vowed that QS will present an opposition that is leftist, feminist and sovereignist in the National Assembly.

Besides Marois, several PQ cabinet ministers fell.

Higher education minister Pierre Duchesne was overtaken by the CAQ in Borduas, language minister Diane De Courcy lost in Crémazie and health minister Réjean Hébert went down in Saint-François.

Former student leaders running for the PQ went down to defeat. Léo Bureau-Blouin, who was a star candidate for the PQ in 2012, fell behind in Laval-des-Rapides, while Martine Desjardins lost a tight three-way race in Groulx.

Television personality Alexis Deschèsne, a star candidate for the PQ, fell behind his Liberal opponent in the swing riding of Trois-Rivières.

Hélène David in Outremont, Martin Coiteux in Nelligan. Carlos Letaio in Robert Baldwin and David Birnbaum in D’Arcy McGee took commanding leads, while veterans like Geoff Kelley in Jacques Cartier, Jacques Chagnon in Westmount-Saint-Louis, and Kathleen Weil in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce also won handily.

Liberal recruit Gaétan Barrette beat out independent Fatima Houda-Pepin in La Pinière after she balked at her former party’s tough stance against the charter of values and was kicked out of caucus.

The 2014 general election began with a PQ minority government in search of a majority.

Bread-and-butter issues of health care, taxes and the economy were largely overshadowed by speculation about another referendum, personal attacks, questions of integrity, identity politics and several red herrings.

There were bizarre pronouncements about students from Ontario trying to steal the election, complaints of voter suppression and aging vedette Janette Bertrand’s fictional accounts of “rich” McGill students monopolizing apartment building pools while campaigning for the PQ. In the waning days, topless women accosted Liberal leader Philippe Couillard.

Marois went into the fight armed with the charter of values and a plan to rally voters with identity politics. But her campaign quickly went awry as she was unable to quell questions about plans for a third sovereignty referendum. The recruitment Péladeau was at first greeted as a coup for the PQ’s credibility in the business community. But his coming out as a sovereignist kickstarted all the speculation.

Unable to rule out a referendum for fear of alienating hardliners in the PQ ranks but relunctant to commit to a clear plan at risk of scaring the two-thirds of Quebecers who do not want to go through another vote on independence, Marois’s assertion that there will only be another referendum when Quebecers are ready provoked more uncertainty.

Couillard, the newly minted Liberal leader, got off to a strong start in the campaign and the first debate, by hammering Marois daily over the referendum anxiety. But he suffered many bruises along the way as Marois began to attack the neurosurgeon’s integrity, first by linking him to the corruption allegations surrounding the previous Liberal government, then with a series of low blows regarding his use of a legal offshore account when working in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s.

Before all the votes were counted, the red squares who helped oust the Liberals from power in 2012 after nine years of rule, were back in the streets of Montreal.

Police quickly declared the impromptu demonstration illegal, but allowed the march to continue as long as it remained peaceful.

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